Caltrain operator smoked pot before near-miss incident

The San Jose Mercury News is reporting that a Caltrain operator had smoked marijuana before a near disaster at the South San Francisco station.

Disembarking passengers jumped for their lives when a speeding bullet train barreled down on them at 76 miles per hour on August 24. They were legally crossing the tracks when the train going on the opposite track almost hit them. It was a close call, but no one was hurt.

Caltrain says the engineer whose train was stopped at the station tested positive for pot after the incident and that both engineers should have been in radio contact.

The engineers are on paid administrative leave pending the results of a Caltrain investigation into what went wrong.